The Gordie Howe International Bridge shares an interesting article & video on their ongoing Aesthetic Lighting Testing than 6,000 programmable, energy-efficient white LED fixtures have been installed across the bridge towers, stay cables, back span, piers, approach span and bridge deck. Each fixture is designed to last more than 100,000 hours with linear lights having the longest lifespan lasting up to 280,000 hours (10 to 30 years!).
Nine months after two cougar kittens were documented in the Upper Peninsula, a new trail camera photo indicates the elusive animals are still alive and living with their mother.
…“This is a historic confirmation for Michigan since it is the first time in over 100 years that verified cougar reproduction has occurred east of the Mississippi River and possible even east of the Missouri River,” Roell said.
A private landowner sent the trail camera photo of the cougars to the DNR on Sunday, Dec. 14. Roell verified the site of the photo Monday and the DNR’s cougar team confirmed the photo Tuesday by enhancing the nighttime image to verify the existence of the three cougars. The sex of the kittens is unknown. Cougar kittens, or cubs, generally stay with their mother for about two years before venturing out on their own. “
The kittens’ chances of survival are actually pretty high because just like bears, cougars invest a lot of their energy into their young,” Roell said. “So these kittens will stay with their mom through this winter and possibly even into next winter. They already have a leg up, seeing as how they’ve been with her for a year now.”
Under perfect viewing conditions, the Geminids deliver up to 120 meteors per hour, though factors like light pollution and atmospheric conditions can reduce that number. But unlike most meteor showers, the Geminids don’t come from a comet. They’re created by debris from 3200 Phaethon, a strange asteroid that brightens and grows a faint tail, helping make this shower especially bright.
Most meteor showers occur when Earth passes through debris trails shed by orbiting comets— the bits of ice and dust burn up in our atmosphere, producing shooting stars. Conceptually, the same process creates the Geminids. But instead of passing through a comet’s tail, Earth passes through the trail of Phaethon 3200, which sheds larger, tougher, and rockier debris than comets.
“This material is larger on average and survives further into our atmosphere and tends to produce brighter meteors,” says Rubert Lunsford, the journal editor of the American Meteor Society. Phaethon 3200’s debris also contains more metal. “When these metals are heated during the passage through our atmosphere, they produce colors associated with each type of metal,” he adds. Calcium and silicon produce orange; iron and sodium produce yellow; nickel produces green; and magnesium produces blue.
As an added bonus, we have a pretty active solar situation making bonus northern lights a definite possibility. Ross took this back in September of 2014 in the Porcupine Mountains backcountry. See many more amazing shows in his incredible Aurora gallery on Flickr.
The 2025 CPKC Holiday Train will tour Canada and the United States November 19 through December 21st raising money, food and awareness to support food banks across their rail network. Professional musicians play free concerts from the brightly decorated train’s stage, and CPKC donates to the local food bank at each stop and encourages all attendees to make a monetary or heart-healthy food donation! Since its inaugural journey in 1999, the CPKC Holiday Train has raised more than $26 million and collected approximately 5.4 million pounds of food for community food banks in Canada and the U.S.
Sean shares that he got these shots from near Detroit’s Michigan Central Station last year – click the pic above for more photos! He recommends it as a really good spot, especially if you can make it there before the crowds. You can see lots more if Sean’s work on his Facebook, where you can also subscribe for exclusive content including live videos.
To have rainbows, we need rain and sun at the same time. What weather pattern is classic for rain and sun at the same time? The current lake-effect rain shower situation is perfect for rainbows. The rain showers are small, maybe only five miles wide. There is a lot of clear sky around the rain showers.
…So we know why we have had and currently have a lot of rainbows in Michigan in the past few days- the spotty lake-effect showers combined with sunshine. But why have there been numerous double rainbows? It has to do with the angle of the sun, combined with the daily weather pattern.
For a double rainbow, the sun has to be fairly low on the horizon, lower than 40 degrees above the horizon. It just so happens the lake-effect showers reach their peak intensity and coverage during the late afternoon heating of the day, when the sun is low on the horizon.
Chris shared a perfect photo for a roundup of recent Detroit news saying: “Both projects broke ground in 2020. The Hudson’s site is now Detroit’s second tallest building, while the Gordie Howe Bridge is the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. Also lit up is the Ambassador Bridge which recently reached its 100 year anniversary.” (the Ambassador is in the foreground with the string of lights).
While 98% of the $5.7 billion project is complete, bridge officials say the remaining work is forcing the delay from the previously announced fall 2025 opening … The final phase focuses heavily on testing the bridge’s technological systems.
…A report from S&P Global Ratings indicated that contractors had missed previous deadlines for transferring border facilities to authorities, though bridge officials would not specifically comment on this.
Detroit has definitely been on the come up in recent years, but it is still notable that 13 years after a poll showed two-thirds of Detroiters felt the city was moving in the wrong direction, a new survey found a dramatic, 180-degree turnaround with 76% feeling the city is headed in the right direction with 11% disagreeing & 13% having no opinion. Among that 11% is Livonia resident & leader of the Detroit News editorial page Nolan Finley, who ruffled more than a few feathers when he suggested that Detroiters are deluded to express contentment.
Up until now, the interstellar comet had been brightening as expected. But now, the observations from mid-September 2025 are beginning to rise above the upward-sloping line of brightening that would have been typical for a comet nearing the sun.
(There has been a lot of talk that 3I/ATLAS might be an interstellar probe due to its great speed & a trajectory that takes it close to Jupiter, Mars & Earth before it slingshots away using the Sun’s gravitation.)
A team of scientists, led by Xabier Pérez-Couto of the University of A Coruña in Spain, has traced the path of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS back 10 million years. Indeed, this is only the 3rd-known object found traveling in our solar system that didn’t originate with our sun and its planets. Its trajectory tells us it must have come from another star system, but which one?
They traced the path back over 100 million astronomical units (9.3 quadrillion miles) but couldn’t find where it started towards Sol. You can read on for lots more!
Gary took these photos of the Northern Lights & Comet Neowise over Lake Michigan back in 2020. See more in his Night Skies gallery on Flickr and view & purchase Gary’s work on his website.
Michigan has some truly incredible sights, but I have to think that Chapel Rock in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore belongs at or near the top of any list of the 7 Wonders of Michigan. Apparently I started to compile a list back in 2015 & added Mackinac Island’s Arch Rock to it. Let’s add Chapel Rock as well. If you have suggestions for the list, share in the comments and then we can vote on them all!
The Chapel area was named by early European explorers and is found on early maps as La Chappelle. Chapel Rock is a remnant of Cambrian age sandstone that was carved by Lake Nipissing high water some 3800 years ago. Continual erosion has carved the rock into the beautiful sculpture it is today. There once was an archway connecting the rock to the mainland (see pic below!). The arch collapsed in the 1940s. The lone white pine on Chapel Rock is estimated to be about 250 years old.
Atlas Obscura adds that a member of the Douglass Houghton expedition exploring Lake Superior’s southern shore described a single pine tree that grew like a “spire” out of the sparse dirt covering the top of the outcropping. Till this day, the same resilient pine stands sentinel over Chapel Rock, connected to the mainland by its extensive root system.
Craig shares that the cool weather has him thinking about autumn colors, and that he was honored to have this photo purchased by National Geographic for a book on national parks! I will for sure share the book when it’s out. You don’t have to wait to see more from Craig though! Follow Craig Serken Photography on Facebook and view or purchase his work on his website!
An absolutely stunning shot of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge that links to the cities of Houghton & Hancock on the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Michigan in Pictures 